Okay, this is not a sequel of Soft Shock. I know I promised it, I'm working on it.

I'm right in the middle of my preparation for an exam that I have to take in exactly a week and three days but I'm feeling happy and I figured that this story has already reached a point when I could publish it and know that it will come to an end without hesitation, so here it is, new story.

Love Is A Doing Word. As soon as I heard this line in Teardrop by Massive Attack, I fell in love with it and it simply fitted perfectly for this AU story. I never tried it so I payed extra attention to get the characters right. If it's bad or you don't like it, just say the word.

The idea behind this story has been used a lot, I'm sure you could name at least three stories when Derek arrives in Seattle already with a child on his own. I hope I will be able to twist things a little and make this story interesting for you readers. I kind of missed your opinions and feedback in this short amount of time I've forced myself out of posting. I surrender, my stories own me.

I decided to go ahead with the well working system of putting songs in the title and this time is my beloved Iron&Wine who's going to open this new story.

Well, tell me what you think about this so I'll know if I should post something more or just leave it be.

Chapter 1 – Sunset Soon Forgotten

It was a brisk, strangely sunny morning in Seattle. Derek Shepherd woke up in the middle of nowhere, also known as his four acres of land overlooking the whole city. The birds were chirping and the wind was rustling between the trees. When the wind played with the branches like that, it sounded like the sea waves at his old house at the Hamptons, he thought. He was sitting on the steps of his shiny trailer, feeling strangely at peace with himself, sipping a warm mug of coffee.

He had gone through difficult months before he moved here from New York. Long and tiring had been his recent past, but right in that moment, Derek felt finally at peace. Because there was a warm sun and the smell of grass he had long forgotten was filling his nostrils and warming him maybe even more than the rays of the yellowish morning sun peeking from the trees.

He loved it there.

He had bought the land to build a house for the holidays when he went to Seattle for a conference a few years before and his hotel was a few miles away from here, but when he arrived back in New York, contract in hand, his wife Addison just blew all his plans telling him that she would never catch rain on holidays, neither she was going to move across the country to live in the wilderness even for a little while. So the land remained there untouched, the contract at the bottom of the drawer in his desk, until Addison became an ex-wife and he finally moved on the opposite side of the country.

The divorce had been rough, maybe more than the process itself the fact that she had been cheating on him with his former best friend, practically brother, Mark. They had yelled at each other for months and the only thing Derek regretted was the fact that somehow their four-year-old daughter, Eden Elise, had been caught in the middle of it without any real power, witnessing most of their fights. The worst part though was when Addison decided to give Derek full custody of her, because she was done with him and she didn't felt good enough to raise their kid alone.

So Derek and Eden started over in Seattle and there they were, in the middle of nowhere, a few hours before his first official shift at Seattle Grace Hospital and her first morning at the hospital daycare. He had no problems or reservations selling his portion of the practice he owned with Mark and Addison and leave as soon as he caught them together. He was an hot-shot neurosurgeon, everybody would have added him to their staff in a blink. He never cared about money, he just wanted to start over and give some kind of normal life to his daughter.

"Daddy" a small, sleepy voice arrived in Derek's ear, almost startling him. He turned around to see Eden, still half asleep, brushing her eyes with the back of her hand. She was standing at the top of the steps, her feet bare, hugged in her favorite pajama with teddy bears, fighting to keep her eyes open. Her wavy red hair, gift from her mother, were cascading messily on her shoulders, her deep blue eyes flickering around confused from the sudden change of scenery from Manhattan to Seattle, from skyscrapers.

"Hey Ladybug, what are you doing up so early?" Derek asked softly, welcoming the girl in his arms. She cuddled to his chest, clearly needing some more time to be properly awake. Derek's arms went around her loosely as she leaned her head on his shoulder. She didn't answered at first and Derek remained there, listening to her even breaths while she snuggled into him.

"I gonna meet new kids at your hospital?" she asked with a strange frown of worry, slowly sitting up on his lap straddling him, making eye contact.

"Yeah, I told you, I'm going to work in a new place and you're going to be near me with lots of new friends to play with and when I have some spare minutes, I'm going to visit" he tried the best he could to make the move smooth, but it had been hard for her to leave all her friends back and start everything again from the beginning.

"Mommy?" her broken voice made Derek's heart ache a little bit more

"I told you baby, Mommy is still in New York" Uncle Mark is keeping her company, he wanted to add, but he remained quiet, brushing soothingly her hair.

He didn't know what to tell her anymore every time she asked. She clearly loved Addison, despite how seldom she had been around, especially in the last few months during the divorce, but moving resulted hard for her as much as it was relieving for Derek.

"She visits, right?" asked sadly and hopeful at the same time

"We can try calling her tonight and tell her about your first day at the new daycare, okay?" he suggested, hoping that she would pick up the phone this time.

"Okay Daddy" she smiled and Derek did the same, because nothing could match the joy his daughter's smile brought him.

He made her breakfast and she chewed happily her cereals, the Mommy issue soon forgotten as she watched amused his father pick up a nice outfit for his first day of work.

"Da blue one, Daddy" she smiled at Derek with her mouth full, seeing he was struggling on the shirt to put under the indigo sweater.

"What if I want the red one, it's the one I use to look good in, you know" he joked

"Yeah, but your sweater is blue" she said matter-of-factly.

"Just like your mother" he mumbled to himself, sighing and shaking his head amused as well. He didn't missed Addison he just wished for something better for Eden than growing up with a single parent, who also happened to be bad at fashion, apparently. At least when he lost his father he had already four annoying sisters.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes!" giggled happily Eden, jumping off the chair and following Derek outside.

She had a blast on the ferry and when Derek told her that from now on they would do this everyday, she suddenly loved the move to Seattle a bit more. Derek smiled broadly during the whole ride, watching fascinated Eden point to birds and places on the coasts, scrutinizing carefully everything around her.

As soon as they arrived at the hospital, Eden was marveled by the fact that it was a huge place compared to the private practice Derek had been working in, so she had to explore it. She loosened her grip to Derek's hand and in a blink she was running towards the elevators.

"Eden!" he called, but he got no answer as the little girl kept running away giggling. He began chasing her, halting as soon as Eden bumped into a pair of ratty black Converse and a light blue scrub. As he looked up to see who he had to profusely apologize to, he found suddenly difficult to form any kind of coherent thought. His daughter picked such a gorgeous doctor to bump into that morning.

"Eden Elise Shepherd!" he roared, finally arriving where both her and the gorgeous woman were standing. Eden had her guilty face on, but Derek's eyes immediately went to the woman: she seemed tired already, despite it was mid morning, but she was also incredibly gracious with locks of golden hair poking out from a messy bun and green-blue, maybe gray eyes screaming tiredness. Yet her smile was genuine and somehow brightened her whole face and she looked even more beautiful then.

"God, I'm so sorry she got in the way" he babbled, unable to break eye contact with the woman. "I told you hundreds of times not to run around, Eden" he finally managed to scold his daughter, as the woman kept grinning.

"No problem, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was headed, we bumped into each other." she said, looking down to Eden smiling, but the girl hid between Derek's legs, probably still feeling guilty.

"Since we're here, do you know where the daycare is, it's my first day here and I really don't like being late" he flashed a smile to the unknown woman who smiled back and there was something about that smile that kept him in awe and made it really hard to understand her answer.

"Oh, fifth floor somewhere, I've never been there, it might be next to Dermatology, probably, but I'm not sure. You don't look like a new intern, tough" she smirked.

"Nope, my internship has been over from a while. Dr. Derek Shepherd, new Head of Neurology" he held out his hand and saw her blushing in the cutest, most adorable way and he couldn't help but smile at her reaction.

"Okay, I've just embarrassed myself in front of my new boss, that's just perfect" she groaned. "Dr. Meredith Grey, third year resident, who happens to specialize in Neuro" she finally took the hand and shook it. Her skin was smooth, or maybe his was too rough, but the touch sent a shiver down Derek's spine. He thanked whoever decided to let the woman specialize in Neuro and suddenly, he was looking forward to his new day of work.

"I'm Eden" a small voice claimed attention, finally poking out from her hiding spot

"Oh, it's such a beautiful name" Meredith smiled, crouching to the girl and holding out her hand as well. Eden smiled and gladly returned the gesture with much of Derek's amusement.

"Okay then, I'll leave you two or you're gonna be late, I have a CT to get to. Bye Dr. Shepherd, bye Eden"

Eden waived and Derek remained there still a bit awestruck by the meeting, unable to do anything but stare at Meredith Grey walking down the hall.

"You met a new friend too, Daddy" said simply Eden and Derek kept smiling as his feet finally began moving again to reach the elevators.

The daycare wasn't a big place, but the twelve kids in Eden's class fit there comfortably. Despite he just chose it for convenience, he actually found himself liking the place and the teachers seemed friendly enough for Eden to run immediately towards the group of kids closer to her age and began playing.

Derek watched her one last time, before heading to the lockers and wearing his brand new indigo scrubs and his pristine lab coat of the Seattle Grace Hospital, ready to meet his former teacher Richard Webber, one of the reasons he moved to Seattle without hesitation.

He stood outside the door waiting, his mind flashing back to Meredith Grey as soon as he let it drift while the Chief was busy.

"Derek Shepherd" he heard the warm, welcoming voice of Richard behind his back and he realized he had finished the meeting.

"Hi Richard, long time no see"

"It's been a while indeed. How's Eden doing, is she okay with the move and everything?" he asked a bit concerned. He had always been very caring about the little girl, considering her almost like his own granddaughter, despite they lived on opposite sides of the country.

"She loves the land I bought, and ferryboats, she has a thing for them" he replied with a smile, remembering her reaction earlier in the morning

"Good, so, do you want a meeting with your coworkers?"

"No, I'll just get to know them on the job, it's easier that way" he smiled, his mind back over the perfect features of Dr. Meredith Grey.

"All right then, your office is down the hall, the fourth door on the right. It's not as big as the one you had in the practice, but I hope it would suffice."

"Thanks for everything Richard, I really needed this" he sighed, still feeling to owe the man at least a dinner of some kind.

"You're welcome Derek, just stop by with Eden, Adele wants to see her so badly"

"We'll be there as soon as we're settled" he agreed, walking out to reach his office.

The room was indeed smaller, but seemed cozy and welcoming, just like the whole city had been so far. An old desk sat in the middle of the room, two comfortable armchairs in front of it, behind a worn out computer chair. On the other side of the room a couch and a plant that had seen better days all in front of it a window with closed blinds and empty shelves all around the walls. He placed his laptop and the photo of him and Eden on the desk, just like he had back in New York. There it just fitted better, though.

He didn't have much time to ponder further on his new office when his pager beeped and his new life in Seattle finally began.

AN: Okay, thoughts?

I hope it wasn't too confusing, but if something is not right just ask and I'll explain.

I hated making Addison the bad guy here, because I was almost fond of her when I passed the whole what the hell is she doing here phase. I'll try to redeem her at some point in this story, probably. We had a glimpse of Meredith as well, but you'll get more, i promise, it won't be exclusively from Derek's perspective, as you noticed in the other stories, I like to shift from one character to the other.

I still don't know when I'll upload next, probably in a long time, but if I get enough feedback I might just steal half an hour from revising my notes and update another chapter! It will probably happen anyway or I'll gone mental before the end of this exam so don't worry much about that...

If somebody wants to Beta this story he or she will be more than welcome.

Thanks for reading!